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| (31/12/05) TB Alert chosen as Lilly UK Charity of the Year |
Throughout the course of 2006, employees at Lilly UK will be fundraising across all sites to raise money for TB Alert. A full calendar of events is planned, from raffles to bike rides, from fetes to pantomimes - we’ll bring you an update on activities as and when they occur.
TB Alert are excited to have been chosen as Lilly's charity for 2006, and look forward to getting involved and supporting their employee fundraising efforts.
TB Alert and Lilly have got to know each other over several years
- Lilly UK have sponsored a leaflet for patients about MDR-TB (click to link to leaflet) and were delighted to have been involved in the launch of Lilly's new Capreomycin plant at its factory in Speke, as we support any initiative which helps people in developing countries get better access to effective TB treatment.
Read more about MDR-TB
The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership
For more than 125 years, Eli Lilly and Company has been a global health innovator. In 2003 the Company launched an important public-private partnership to address the expanding global crisis of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The shared goal of all participants in the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership is to save lives by preventing and treating MDR-TB.
The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership is a pioneering initiative led by Lilly that will increase the number of trained medical personnel and drugs available to treat people with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. It was launched with the goal of supporting WHO in treating 20,000 MDR-TB patients annually by the year 2010.
Because of the complexity of MDR-TB treatment, Lilly decided to develop a comprehensive initiative which encompassed: transfer of technology; drug supply at concessionary prices; training tools for health care professionals/training of trainers; involving communities and businesses in improving MDR-TB prevention and treatment adherence; assistance to governments to design sound MDR-TB (DOTS- PLUS) strategies; and, strengthen surveillance systems to understand and handle drug resistance
With the exception of the transfer of technology, the other above components are implemented by Lilly's partners. To develop and monitor all activities, a Lilly MDR-TB Governance Council and 4 working groups have been established. Today Lilly has 13 active partners.
From 2000 to the end of 2005, Lilly will has supplied close to 800,000 vials of Capastat, and nearly 3.7 million capsules of Seromycin (both antibiotics used to treat MDR-TB).
Read more about the Lilly MDR-TB
Partnership
id: 30-01-06 lilly |
| (22/12/05) Carols in Trafalgar Square |
On Thursday 22nd December 2005 members of two choirs sang in front of the Christmas tree at Trafalgar square in aid of TB Alert..more
id: 22-12-05carols |
| (20/12/05) New TB therapy offers potential shorter treatment |
A new combination therapy for tuberculosis might reduce treatment time for the disease from six months to four months, according to the results of a Phase II clinical trial sponsored by the World Health Organization's Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases the U.N. News Service reported yesterday.
WHO currently recommends that TB patients undergo a six-month regimen of isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol. The South African Medical Research Council conducted the trial among HIV-negative and HIV-positive TB patients in Durban, South Africa. The researchers replaced ethambutol in the standard regimen with gatifloxacin and compared the efficacy of the new regimen with the WHO-recommended regimen and two other similar regimens. The study finds that when gatifloxacin replaces ethambutol, TB can be successfully treated in four months. Researchers plan in a Phase III trial to determine whether a four-month course of the new regimen is equivalent to a six-month course of the standard regimen. The trial will be conducted in Benin, Guinea, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa (WHO release, 12/16). The new regimen could be available by the end of 2009 if subsequent trial results are positive. The results of the trial were presented last week by TDR Director Robert Ridley at the 45th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Washington, D.C. (UN News Service, 12/19). .
id: 20-12-05 treatment |
| (15/12/05) TB Vaccine granted Orphan status |
A TB Vaccine created by researchers at Oxford University has been granted Orphan Status by the European Commission.
This status, designed to encourage the development of drugs, which are necessary but would be prohibitively expensive to develop under normal circumstances, will help bring the vaccine to human use across
the developing world. Orphan status will give the vaccine market exclusivity within the European Union, and will grant free vaccine development and regulatory advice so that the vaccine meets the requirements for human use once development has been completed.
It is the first time orphan status has been granted to a drug developed by a university (as opposed to a company). It is also the first potentially universal vaccine to be recommended for this status, which is usually given for treatments for rare illnesses. The status was granted by the Committee on Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). COMP was set up to provide incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for rare diseases, whose victims are often referred to as `health orphans' because no-one wants to go through the difficult and expensive process of developing treatments for them. Although tuberculosis is far from rare, it is mainly found in developing countries, which cannot usually afford new drugs, making a potential new vaccine unlikely to be profitable.
The vaccine, which has been developed by Dr Helen McShane and Professor Adrian Hill, in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, is designed to prevent tuberculosis in people already vaccinated by BCG. This is important because repeated vaccination with BCG has recently been shown to be ineffective in Brazilian young people.
Project manager, Trudie Lang said: `This status will not only help us to move forward with bringing the vaccine to people who need it, but is also a show of confidence in the importance of thevaccine, which is the product of very many years' work.
An Orphan Drug
status is given to drugs used to treat diseases that occur rarely (less than 200,000 cases) or where is no hope for recovery of development costs, so there is little financial incentive for industry to develop them. Orphan drug status gives the manufacturer specific financial incentives to provide the drug.
id: 15-12-05orphan |
| (12/12/05) TB Alert Christmas Appeal 2005 launched |
This year's Christmas Appeal came from TB Alert Southern Africa Representative Winstone Zulu. Winstone Lives with HIV, but he nearly died when he contracted TB - read his story here...
id: 19-12-05appeal |
| (30/11/05)
Ratting out TB
(Lisa Johnson, Mail & Guardian online, South Africa) |
If the international experts gathered at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) Symposium on Tuberculosis in Tanzania last month thought they could smell a rat, they weren’t far off the mark. Perched at the back of the conference centre was a gargantuan beast munching contentedly on a bit of blackened banana. The rat wasn’t there in its usual designation of pesky critter, however, but rather -- as the members of the Belgium humanitarian research group Apopo hoped to demonstrate -- as helpful sniffer.
The research group has already had measurable success using the African giant pouched rat’s highly developed olfactory ability to sniff out land mines in Mozambique. They were present at the symposium partly in the hope of securing funding to further explore the potential of putting the rodents to work as an alternative diagnostic tool for the early detection of tuberculosis (TB) in humans.
The idea is to train the rats to differentiate the “target” smell of the mycrobacterium tuberculosis in human sputum or even breath samples from a variety of background scents. A rat is released down a structure that contains a multitude of “sniffer holes” under which the sputum samples are placed. When a rat comes across a “positive” sample it will sniff and bite at the hole or remain stationary with its nose in the hole, indicating to its trainer that the TB scent is present. The rat is given a food reward to ensure that incentive remains high.
Apopo has already set up a training and evaluation laboratory at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania which has the capacity to process 200 sputum samples per hour.
The researchers maintain that one rat can potentially analyse about 100 samples in 20 minutes, which makes for pretty impressive numbers if compared with the average maximum of 40 samples that can be analysed by a lab technician per day using microscopy.
Added to this, the researchers hope to prove that this sniffer “technology” could considerably reduce public health costs because of the shorter time it takes to train technical staff and also the fact that no expensive equipment is required.
Bart Weetjens, director of Apopo, says it is hard to calculate the exact amount it takes to train an individual rat because there are still a lot of research costs involved. However, “roughly one could say that it is a magnitude less than it costs to train a detection dog. A dog takes about $40 000 [to train], while rats would cost less than $5 000 when fully trained.”
The amount is also considerably less than it takes to educate a human in microscopy and rats aren’t picky about where they want to practise their skills, so the problem of retaining laboratory staff in rural areas is, at least in part, somewhat reduced.
The potential beauty of this really comes into play in sub-Saharan Africa where the estimated incidence of TB per capita is nearly twice that of South-East Asia, at 350 cases per 100 000 population. The pouched rats are endemic in the region and resistant to most tropical diseases, and to TB.
They are also small and therefore easily transported and housed. They are easy to breed and train and, because they respond to food rewards, they can be handled by a variety of trainers. The animals also have the ability to concentrate for long periods of time and one handler can work with many rodents consecutively.
Apopo’s intermediary results were met with enthusiasm from the delegates at the symposium, among whom were representatives from big pharma, the World Health Organisation, the National Institute of Health and other major public health organisations.
“We got a big applause, lots of questions and we were approached for potential funding after the lecture,” says Weetjens. “If this will effectively result in a grant is still open to question, but consciousness of our rats is certainly growing. The potential benefits for use in an African context is just too overwhelming not to further investigate it.”
id: 30-11-05 rats |
| (16/11/05) Early Day Motion on TB and HIV/AIDS |
Nick Herbert, MP for Arundel and South Downs, today tabled Early Day Motion number 1025, proposing
"That this House acknowledges the continent-wide tuberculosis (TB) emergency recently declared by African Ministers of Health; notes with concern that TB kills two million people worldwide each year, that an estimated one third of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS are co-infected with TB and that TB is the leading killer of people living with HIV/AIDS; further notes with concern that the World Health Organisation's `3 by 5' initiative to provide three million people living with HIV/AIDS with life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs by 2005 is unlikely to be met; recognises that TB treatment is one of the most effective ways of extending the life of a dually infected person until antiretroviral drugs become universally available; believes that global efforts to tackle TB and HIV should be fully co-ordinated in order to control the rise of TB among HIV-infected people and to identify more patients in need of antiretroviral treatment; recognises that the theme of this year's World AIDS Day is `keep the promise'; and urges the Government to pledge its share for collaborative TB/HIV programmes as recommended in the Commission for Africa Report."
By 25th November, 47 other MPs had added their signatures to support this motion. We will watch with interest to see how many more support this motion.
An Early Day Motion, or EDM, is a motion put down ("tabled") by Members of Parliament calling for a debate on a particular subject. In practice, there is rarely time to debate EDMs nowadays and their true modern-day purpose is to enable MPs to draw attention to an issue and to canvass support for their views by inviting other Members to add their signatures in support of the motion.
id: EDM 1025 |
| (16/11/05) New TB Tests win Medical Awards |
- Dr David Moore from Imperial College London has developed a new test to diagnose active TB. The new test relies on the characteristic growth pattern of Mycobacterium TB grown in a special liquid media and viewed using an inverted light microscope. Using this technique the bacteria can be identified in days, unlike traditional cutlture methods which can take up to six weeks.
Dr Moore's new test, Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility (MODS) provides resource-poor developing countries with a rapid, inexpensive detection of TB. The addition of drugs to the liquid media allows Dr Moore's team to identify the appropriate drugs needed to treat the disease within days. This is particularly important given the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains of the disease.
His idea, currently being developed in Lima, Peru, has won this year's top award at the Medical Futures Innovation Awards. The Awards, which were set up in 2001 by a practicising NHS doctor, Dr Andy Goldberg, are designed to encourage and promote a culture of creativity, innovation and leadership amongst healthcare professionals and facilitate the successful commercialisation of these ideas.
The Judges, who are the UK's leading think-tank on healthcare innovation, chaired by Professor Sally Davies, Director of Research and Development at the Department of Health, chose Dr Moore's submission ahead of the 1,200 entries because:
- of its simplicity and huge potential to have a global impact
- it will help reduce the 350 needless deaths in England from TB each year (TB has increased by 25 per cent in the UK over the last 10 years)
- the test is quick; average time for result is seven days as compared to six weeks using traditional culture techniques
- it can predict drug susceptibility (hence direct treatment)
“Nearly two million people in the world are dying needlessly from TB, largely because of inadequate diagnostic resources. This is a tragedy because the disease is completely curable” said Dr Moore, Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases at the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust in London.
“MODS will allow us to move away from the traditional 100 year old tests and can bring equity in access to TB diagnostics to those living in high-burden developing world settings where the need is greatest but the tools are the bluntest.”
Dr Andy Goldberg, founder of Medical Futures said, “This innovation could have a profound impact on global healthcare delivery. It demonstrates the ingenuity of an innovator in taking a simple laboratory finding and applying it to meet a widespread clinical need.
“Its just what Alexander Fleming did in 1928 with Penicillin.”
Dr Moore and his team received a £10,000 cash prize, validation from 30 leading experts in healthcare and will continue to receive access to professionals capable of accelerating the implementation of his innovation and allow it to impact widely.
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Two further awards were given to developments aiming to expediate the diagnosis of TB. They were;
The MRC Award for Innovation in Biomedical Research
- WINNER: Dr Niall Armes – DNA diagnostic method
- THE PROBLEM: MRSA, TB and other infectious diseases could be diagnosed earlier and more accurately, using DNA amplification methods if the equipment used were not so expensive or power hungry.
- THE SOLUTION: a DNA amplification method which is highly sensitive, easy to use, fast, capable of working outside the laboratory and at between room and body temperature. This solution exploits low cost and mobile equipment, which does not require huge power resources, or highly trained specialist staff.
The Award for The Best Business Proposition
- WINNER: Dr Peter Wrighton Smith - T Spot™-TB
- THE PROBLEM: Tuberculosis (TB) is a significant healthcare challenge globally, with one third of the world’s population infected. Until recently, the only means of testing for latent TB infection was the tuberculin skin test (TST).
- THE SOLUTION: T SPOT-TB is a new blood test that allows reliable screening and early detection of TB infection. The sensitivity and specificity of the test means that, unlike the TST, it does not produce false positive results in people who have received the BCG vaccination, produces far fewer false negatives and can provide reliable results in people with weak immune systems
id: 16-11-05 awards |
| (9/11/05) MPs congratulate Sir John Crofton through Early Day Motion |
Early Day Motion 927 proposes "That this House congratulates tuberculosis (TB) pioneer Sir John Crofton on his award of the Union Medal, the highest honour awarded by the International Union against TB and Lung Diseases; recognises his outstanding contribution to the control of TB and lung disease; and notes that his work in the field has helped cure over 10 million people of the disease worldwide." 37 MPs had added their signatures by 25th November.
Read more about Sir John, TB Alert's Honorary President
An Early Day Motion, or EDM, is a motion put down ("tabled") by Members of Parliament calling for a debate on a particular subject. In practice, there is rarely time to debate EDMs nowadays and their true modern-day purpose is to enable MPs to draw attention to an issue and to canvass support for their views by inviting other Members to add their signatures in support of the motion.
id: 02-11-05 EDM for Sir John |
| (20/10/05)
Aeras To Support GlaxoSmithKline Human Trials of TB Vaccine
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Maryland based Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation on Thursday was scheduled to announce a deal in which it will spend up to $13 million over the next two years to help GlaxoSmithKline move ahead with human trials of a tuberculosis vaccine, the Washington Post reports. The foundation hopes the deal will lead to the development of an effective TB vaccine within the next 10 years. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided $100 million for the project. GSK is leading worldwide efforts to develop a TB vaccine, and if its vaccine continues to show good results, the company will need more money to conduct trials using as many as 20,000 people to prove the effectiveness of the vaccine, Aeras President and CEO Jerald Sadoff said. The vaccine probably will not reach the market before 2012 because scientists still need to conduct larger studies to determine its effectiveness and how best to administer it. Deals to subsidize drug companies' research, such as the one GSK has entered into with Aeras, might encourage more drug companies to develop vaccines against TB, the Post reports (Gillis, Washington Post, 20/10).
Read the full article in the Washington Post
id: 20-10-05-vaccine |
| (19/10/05) Scotland (and TB Alert) Proud of Sir John, as he wins Union Medal |
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TB Alert's Honorary President, TB Pioneer Sir John Crofton has been honoured by the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases. The Union Medal, the organisation's highest award,
which recognises outstanding contributions to the control of tuberculosis and lung disease, was presented to Sir John at the 36th World Conference tonight.
Read the IUATLD Press release
Read more about Sir John
Scotland’s First Minister Jack McConnell said:
"I am delighted to congratulate Sir John Crofton on the award of the Union Medal. It was a great privilege for me to meet Sir John and Eileen earlier this year when our Parliament voted to ban smoking in enclosed public places in Scotland.
The achievement of his Edinburgh team in applying the world’s first 100% cure for tuberculosis was truly remarkable. They thought it would take 20 years, but they managed it in six. I know he has been a tireless supporter of the Union’s efforts to extend this to every country. Sadly, there is still much we all need to do to achieve this goal.
Sir John has been an inspiration to successive generations of doctors and policy makers and Scotland is immensely proud of him."
id: 19-10-05-sirjohn |
| (18/10/05)
Bayer Launch Trial of Drug That Could Shorten TB Treatment |
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The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) and Bayer Healthcare AG today announced a partnership to coordinate a global clinical trial program to study the potential of an existing antibiotic, moxifloxacin, to shorten the standard 6-month treatment of tuberculosis (TB).
If the trials are successful, the partnership aims to register moxifloxacin for a TB indication and is committed to making it affordable and accessible in developing countries where patients need it most. The trials will take place in Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, Uganda, the United States and Zambia.
The Phase II clinical trial program spans four continents and will enroll close to 2,500 patients with TB. Bayer will donate moxifloxacin for each trial site and will cover the costs of regulatory filings. The TB Alliance will coordinate and help cover the costs of the trials, leveraging substantial support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Orphan Products Development Center of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).
"We are witnessing an historic moment in global health," said Dr. Maria C. Freire, President and CEO of the TB Alliance. "Today, we stand with Bayer, embarking on a major clinical trial program to see if this excellent antibiotic can shorten TB treatment by 2-3 months, which would significantly improve therapy. If successful, a new, shorter regimen could be available in the next five years, making the difference between life and death for millions of TB patients."
The trials will evaluate whether the substitution of moxifloxacin for one of the standard TB drugs (ethambutol or isoniazid) eliminates TB infection faster than the current standard therapy. Current TB therapy is based on four drugs discovered forty or more years ago that must be administered for six to eight months, often under the direct observation of a healthcare provider. Preclinical studies in vivo showed moxifloxacin reduced treatment time by two months when substituted for isoniazid, a cornerstone drug of TB treatment. Moxifloxacin is approved in 104 countries to treat certain bacterial respiratory and skin infections.
"Moxifloxacin has been safely and reliably used to treat millions of patients with a variety of bacterial respiratory tract infections," said Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, head of the pharmaceuticals division of Bayer HealthCare. "Bayer is committed to working with the TB Alliance to develop a shorter TB therapy and we are proud to make a tangible contribution and to participate in the movement to achieve the Millennium Development Goal to reverse tuberculosis as a major global health pandemic by 2015."
Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects one-third of the world's population, resulting in nine million new cases of active TB and two million deaths each year. Public health experts note that a shorter TB regimen would help ease the economic burden, estimated at $16 billion a year, and enable healthcare workers to treat more patients. A shorter protocol could also reduce side effects, improve patient adherence to therapy, and save lives. When patients complete treatment successfully, there is a lower chance of relapse and the emergence of drug resistance.
"This is an important step toward developing a new generation of TB treatments. We urgently need to improve upon current TB drugs, which were developed more than 40 years ago," said Dr. Helene Gayle, Director, HIV, TB and Reproductive Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "By innovating with an existing product, Bayer and the TB Alliance could make an improved TB treatment available much faster than would otherwise be possible."
Two clinical trials are being conducted by the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC) of the CDC, represented by Steering Committee Chair Dr. Neil Schluger of Columbia University. Principal investigators of the two other trials are Dr. Richard Chaisson of the Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Stephen Gillespie of the University College London, working with Prof. Andrew Nunn of the British Medical Research Council.
Current projections of TB incidence and mortality reflect the need for shorter, more effective TB therapy. An estimated 1 billion people will be newly infected between 2000 and 2020, 200 million will fall ill and 35 million will die. TB is a leading cause of death among people living with HIV/AIDS, and multi-drug resistant strains are spreading at a rate of 300,000 newly diagnosed cases a year.
id: 18-10-05-drug |
| (28/9/05) Cherie loves TB? |
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On the front page of the Telegraph today, the Prime Minister's wife was shown wearing a badge proclaiming "I love TB". While we understand that she would want to support her husband at conference time, we wish she had been a bit more sensitive and called him Tony instead of TB. As Trustee, Prof Peter Davies wrote to the Telegraph that very day:
Sir,
I was concerned to see the PM's wife sporting a badge saying "I love TB." As a disease which kills 2 million people a year, many suffering from HIV/AIDS, this is a disease to feared and eliminated rather than loved.
Professor Peter D.O. Davies
TB Alert
id: 28-09-05-Cherie |
| (27/9/05) G8 pledges 'not enough' to pay for AIDS fight
(David White, FT) |
Pledges by G8 leaders to double aid to Africa will not be enough to cover the cost of tackling the HIV/Aids epidemic, a United Nations envoy warned yesterday. Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said funding would fall short of requirements even if the US and other big donors fulfilled the promises made at July's Gleneagles summit. And there were already signs that their commitments were being eroded....more
id: enter an unique id here |
| (25/9/05) Researchers Improve Tuberculosis Vaccine
(Jessica Borman, VOA News) |
An international team of researchers plans to begin testing a new vaccine they say shows promise in protecting people against tuberculosis, a disease that infects nine million people each year and kills more than two million. The drug is an improved version of a vaccine that was developed in the early part of the last century...more
id: enter an unique id here |
| (31/8/05) ICN Launches TB nurse training programme |
Geneva, Switzerland, 31 August 2005 - The International Council of Nurses (ICN) today launched a broad based training programme for nurses in high TB and MDR-TB* burden countries, aimed at building capacity and mobilizing this key corps of health care workers. Read more
id: 31-08-05-ICN |
| (26/8/05) WHO declares TB an emergency in Africa |
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Maputo, 26 August 2005 -
The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa comprising health ministers from 46 Member States has declared tuberculosis an emergency in the African region - a response to an epidemic that has more than quadrupled the annual number of new TB cases in most African countries since 1990 and is continuing to rise across the continent, killing more than half a million people every year.
TB Alert patron Desmond Tutu supports the declaration of TB as an emergency in Africa. Listen to his statement (Windows media*)
Read the WHO TB press release (PDF document)
For a quick fact sheet on Tuberculosis follow this link: TB fact sheet (PDF document)
id: 26-08-05-africa |
| (18/8/05) Government BCG update |
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On 6th July, the Government announced changes to the BCG programme, effective from September. Click here for a copy of the Chief Medical Officer's announcement (pdf file). TB Alert issued a joint press release with the British Thoracic Society and British Lung Foundation which outlined our position as broadly supportive of the government’s decision to stop the universal BCG school vaccination programme and concentrate resources where they are most needed, i.e. in high TB incidence areas and at risk groups (click here for a full copy of our press release).
HOWEVER, we do feel that there are a range of issues still to be addressed, such as …
”Will the resources currently used for the universal BCG programme be fully diverted to other TB control measures, like funding more TB nurse posts?,”
“What about children who fall through the gap?”
“Will there be easier access to BCG for healthcare workers, travelers to high-incidence countries and others at risk?”.
Operational guidance was released on 18th August which puts the onus on each PCT to develop a locally appropriate policy, meaning the answers to these questions may vary across the country, however we will continue to keep our ears and eyes open and let you know when we find out more.
id: 18-08-05-bcg |
| (8/6/05) TB Alert Trustee comment on AIDS deaths in Africa |
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In the article "Rock the World" on 4 June 2005, The Times makes the point that "More than 5,000 will die of Aids on the [African] continent today". Professor Peter Davies replied, in a letter published on 8th June 2005, pointing out that AIDS does not kill people, TB does. Follow this link to the letter.
id: enter an unique id here |
| (8/6/05) Journal of the American Medical Association issue dedicated to TB |
id: enter an unique id here |
| (15/2/05) Tory plans to test immigrants for TB |
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Michael Howard, leader of the Conservative Party, has announced plans today that all non-EU migrants will be tested for tuberculosis if they are coming for more than six months. If they want to settle for the long term will have to undergo TB, HIV and a number of other tests. If they fail the TB test their visa will be denied.
At TB Alert we want to see the eradication of TB worldwide and encourage informed debate. To that end we would like to ask you to read the following note before coming to your conclusion. TB and Immigration: Relevant points that should be remembered in the debate [PDF 114KB]
In the UK 200 people a year die of TB. There are about 7000 cases of TB a year in the UK.
id: enter an unique id here |
| (01/12/04) TB Alert Christmas Appeal |
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Thank you to all our supporters for your help over the last year. Please support our Christmas appeal if you can.
Click here to read our appeal.
Click here to read about Raheena – a little girl who will be enjoying Christmas this year due to the life-saving treatment she received at Nav Jivan hospital in northern India, a TB Alert project.
Click here to read more about TB in children
id: enter an unique id here |
| (Oct 04) UK TB Action plan released |
| England and Wales are the only countries in Europe where TB has increased over the past 10 years with 350 people dying every year from the disease. With this background TB experts have welcomed the launch of the Chief Medical Officer’s Tuberculosis Action Plan for England, but the British Thoracic Society, the British Lung Foundation and TB Alert have expressed concern over whether the Plan’s recommendations
will be properly funded.
However, it is important to note that TB in the UK can never be fully controlled in Britain until it is controlled worldwide. The UK's seven thousand cases a year are just a small part of the almost nine million cases and two million deaths that occur globally.
For the full press release from TB Alert, the BTS, and BLF click here. (PDF document)
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| (24/03/04) TB Alert Patron Archbishop Desmond Tutu on World TB Day |
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24 March 2004: “TB continues to ravage societies especially in underdeveloped countries. It is tragic that this debilitating disease, so wide-spread that it is known in every corner of the globe, has not been brought under control. The problem is huge, medical authorities cannot overcome it alone. They need our help, you can make the difference. With treatment patients can be cured, TB untreated is life-threatening. I would just like to point to India , the host of this [World TB day] meeting as a prime example of what can be accomplished if we put our minds and our resources into it. I urge you to support the Stop TB Partnership [This is a global advocacy organisation of which TB Alert is the UK partner]. Share the responsibility and share the reward of knowing you are saving lives. I am living proof that TB can be beaten. Every breath does count, so stop TB now and let people live!”
Click here to see/hear the speech (RealVideo*) Hi Lo
id: 24-03-04-wtbday-speech |
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